Monday, July 6, 2015

Clinton's Protected Emails Raise Significant Questions

Hilary Clinton showed no regard for State Department policy
when she performed government business on her own personal
account, and created personal accounts for others closest to her. Now
Clinton continues to avoid releasing emails that could disclose how she ignored
the security risks in Benghazi. Hilary Clinton continues to try to protect
her emails and memos although the State Department did release a cache
of the former Secretary of State’s emails after orders from a federal judge in
a Freedom of Information Act request.

As Republicans continue to try to piece together Clinton’s
response to Benghazi and the avoidable attacks in 2012, nongovernmental groups
have resorted to filing lawsuits to gain access to the information.

Thomas Fitton, President of Judicial
Watch, and other groups filed lawsuits to force the State Department to
provide Clinton’s memos and emails. The parties seek emails on Clinton’s home
server because Clinton conducted government business through her personal email
address rather than a government email.

The State Department confirmed Clinton failed to turn over
all relevant documents. As the Select Committee on Benghazi stated in a press
release,

This confirms doubts about the
completeness of Clinton’s self-selected public record and raises serious
questions about her decision to erase her personal server—especially before it
could be analyzed by an independent, neutral third party arbiter.

The committee also asserts that the failure for Clinton to
comply with these requests creates questions beyond Libya. Clinton’s use of her
personal email and server makes Clinton deleted emails were unacceptable as a
State Department official admitted to a Senate committee. Fitton points to the
fact that the information in Clintons email is unknown and was not vetted
through State Department protocol. He says,

It dramatically undermines the defense both from the State
Department and Mrs. Clinton
that this is not really a big deal…[and] It makes our litigation all the more
important for either a court to try to retrieve that server [or] State and
other authorities doing what they need to do to secure it.

Only time will tell whether Clinton will continue to protect
information from the reaches of government protocol, FOIA requests, Congressional
subcommittee subpoenas, and now lawsuits.